Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there."Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus," the conservative president said in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America."Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast," Erdogan said.Erdogan said that Ankara was even prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer."I would like to talk about it to my Cuban brothers. A mosque would go perfectly on the hill today," the Turkish leader said.History books say that Columbus set foot on the American continent in 1492 as he was seeking a new maritime route to India.A tiny minority of Muslim scholars have recently suggested a prior Muslim presence in the Americas, although no pre-Columbian ruin of an Islamic structure has ever been found.In a controversial article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh refers to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions a mosque in Cuba. But the passage is widely understood to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.

The Halki Seminary, officially called the Theological School of Halki,
was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church's
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Ýstanbul until a law enacted by the Turkish
Parliament banned private higher education institutions in 1971. It
has remained closed since 1971.

The school is located at the top of Heybeliada (Halki) Island's Hill
of Hope, inside the Monastery of the Holy Trinity built during the
Byzantine era. Although there are many non-state-sponsored foundations
supporting higher education institutions in Turkey, and it would
not be difficult for an Orthodox church foundation to support the
seminary, it is shameful to see that the seminary is still closed
due to several legal obstacles. In reality, there is no political
will to re-open the seminary, nor support from any political party.

It simply means the existence of a double standard, to defend the
idea that there is religious freedom in Turkey and at the same time
refuse to re-open the seminary after 43 years of closure. This school
is significant from both a symbolic and realistic view. It can stand
as a sign of respect to others' religious rights and liberties in a
country that is 99 percent Muslim and at the same time, the Orthodox
community has a great need for well-educated religious staff for its
church. It is very embarrassing that arguments are made suggesting
that because there is no mosque in Athens, there should be no seminary
in Turkey. I really do not understand where we get the sense that we
have the right to control others' belief as it is still written in
the Constitution that this state is secular and maintains an equal
distance to all beliefs and religions.

Yesterday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoðan declared that a mosque is
well-suited for the top of a hill in Havana, the capital city of Cuba.

There is a tiny minority of 7,000 Muslims in Cuba and only 4,000 of
them live in Havana. They have long complained that they do not have
a place to practice their religion collectively and Turkey is known to
be willing to build a mosque in Havana. A Turkish delegation traveled
to Havana earlier this year to seek permission for a mosque in the
capital. Turkish media reported last month that Cuban authorities
rejected the request submitted by Turkey's Religious Affairs Foundation
(TDV). I think they started to see this request with reciprocal
principles, in other words, no seminary, no mosque.

Religious rights are a matter of democratization. It is essential to
comply with the requests of religious minorities, seeing religious
minorities as a threat or Trojan horse is pathetic in the 21st
century. Again, it is hypocrisy to deny a religious right to our
neighbors, brothers and sisters living on the same street and in
the same city who hold a different belief but expect others to give
that same religious right to people sharing our religion who live
10,000 kilometers away. I really wonder what President Erdoðan will
say if the Cubans ask about the situation of the Alevis, Armenians,
Caferis, Jews, Assyrians, Baha'is, Chaldeans, Yazidis, Nestorians
and Protestants living in Turkey.

Pope Benedict XVI says: "A just laicism allows religious freedom. The
state does not impose religion but rather gives space to religions
with a responsibility toward civil society and therefore it allows
these religions to be factors in building up society." Sometimes it
is good to listen to others and it doesn't require leaving our beliefs.

ANKARA (Hurriyet Daily)—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has instructed Turkey’s educational institutions to adopt a policy of highlighting the contribution of Islam to global science and arts, including Erdogan’s own claim that the American continent was first discovered by Muslims.

Erdogan, speaking at a conference with South American Muslim leaders in Turkey over the weekend, claimed that America was discovered by Muslim sailors 300 years before Columbus. His claim caused astonished reactions around the world.

“I have to be clear that there is an important responsibility falling on the shoulders of our Education Ministry and YÖK [the Higher Education Board]. An objective writing of history will show the contribution of the East, the Middle East and Islam to the science and arts. As the president of my country, I cannot accept that our civilization is inferior to other civilizations,” Erdogan said in his address to students at the opening of a religious school in Ankara on Tuesday.

He also slammed criticisms from columnists and cartoonists mocking his claims that Muslim sailors discovered the Americas and constructed a mosque in Cuba centuries before Columbus.

“Why [do they not believe it]? Because they have never believed that a Muslim can do such a thing. They have never believed that their ancestors could manage to launch ships in the Golden Horn after transporting them across land,” Erdogan said, referring to Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II’s conquest of Istanbul in 1453.

“They have never believed that their ancestors ended the Dark Age and opened the New Age. That’s a lack of self-confidence,” he added.

Erdogan defended his claims about the discovery of the Americas and underlined that the suggested had not originally been made by him. “This claim is not new. It is mentioned in Prof. Fuat Sezgin’s books. A number of academics in Turkey and in the world have made this claim,” he said, without referring to his suggestion that the Muslims who discovered Cuba built a mosque on a hill there.

Fuat Sezgin is a Turkish professor emeritus on Arabic-Islamic science, who has been living in Germany since the aftermath of the 1960 coup in Turkey.

A day after Erdogan voiced his claim about the discovery of the Americas for the first time, Sezgin participated in a press conference to introduce the Turkish edition of his book on the history of Arab-Islamic literature.

“I wrote years ago that the American continent was discovered by Muslim sailors. Everything written in the book is correct, but nobody in my country speaks about it,” daily Milliyet quoted Sezgin as saying on Nov. 16. Bilal Erdogan, the son of the Turkish president, was sitting next to Sezgin during the press conference.

“Western sources shouldn’t be believed as if they are sacred texts,” Erdogan added on Tuesday, promising to maintain his “encouraging” role in this regard.

In his speech, he also cited the mega projects being carried out in Turkey, including the intercontinental Marmaray undersea tunnel, the third bridge over the Bosphorus and the Kanal Istanbul project, as reasons for the Turkish youth to have “self-confidence.”

Poor, abused, ignored Christopher Columbus. Despite his best efforts,
the Genoese navigator was never appreciated by the Spanish rulers on
whose behalf he recklessly sailed west to find a new route to India.

And then the hemisphere that he discovered was named after Amerigo
Vespucci by an ignorant German cartographer.

To add insult to injury, some years ago archeologists declared the
Vikings had settled in what is now Canada and New England centuries
before the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria chased the sun. And now comes
the final insult from archeologist-alchemist-geographer-historian
extraordinaire Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who when not making
earth-shattering discoveries, moonlights as the absolute ruler of
Turkey with a $600-million brand-new presidential palace to prove it.

So what's the new and stunning discovery from Prof. Erdogan's
scriptorium-cum-laboratory? America was discovered by Muslims in the
12th century. Americanologist Erdogan even provided the exact year of
the discovery: 1178. That's what's new from the Erdogan Institution of
Loony Toons. During a television speech in Istanbul at the summit of
Latin American Muslim leaders, on Nov. 15, Dr. Erdogan revealed that
Columbus had mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill along the
Cuban coast. He didn't say whether it was on the northern shore, close
to the tourist-infested Varadero resort, or on the southern coast near
Guantanamo. The audience, of course, lapped it up, since... the Muslim
leaders were all on an all-expenses paid guests of Erdogan. As well,
they were probably cognizant of the ancient observation that a rich
man's joke is always funny.

Archeologist "Turkana Jones" Erdogan added he was very eager to
participate in the construction of a new mosque where the pre-Columbian
mosque had once pierced the blue skies of the Caribbean.

To wit, he said: "I would like to tell my Cuban brothers, a mosque
would be perfectly well suited on this hill today as well." End
of quote.

Although Prof. Erdogan thinks his discovery would change history,
he is sadly a Johnny-come lately to "Muslims Discovered America"
scholarship. Any child who looks at the map of the Americas can
point numerous examples of ancient Muslim presence in the Western
Hemisphere. For example, it has been endubitedly proven by etymologists
at the University of Batman (Turkey) that Havana is a corruption
of the Arabic Habena ("We loved it"). In fact, Cubans call the city
Habana. Haiti is another one. It means "My Life" in Arabic.

There are also countless Adamses, meaning bone in Arabic. Alaska, of
course, is the corruption of Al Aqsa of Jerusalem. Amarillo (Texas)
means the moon. Alabama, Alagoaz, Albion, Aleutian, Algoma, Algonquin
and countless other American place names of Arabic or Muslim origin
don't require exegesis.

And how one can ignore the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean?

Those were settled by Turkish immigrants in times immemorial. Caicos
(plural of caic) means boats in Turkish. Not too far from those
islands, in the Florida Keys, one can find the Islamorada islet. An
eager-beaver Boy Scout, armed with an AAA map, should be able to
locate a mosque or a madrassa there, without much effort. Meanwhile,
there are Lebanons in no less than four American states (Kentucky,
Missouri, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania).

But absent-minded professor Erdogan has a point: Muslims were crucial
in the discovery of the Americas. Because the Ottoman Turks wouldn't
allow European merchants to travel east to India, King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of Spain were forced to find a western route to India...

and thus Columbus bumped into yet another Muslim presence... in Cuba.

Several years ago Prof. Erdogans creative mignons in Ankara and in
Istanbul proved convincingly that the American Natives were of Turkic
origins. The Turks had travelled from Central Asia to Mongolia, China,
north of today's Far East Russia, and crossed the Bering Straits. Then
they had proceeded to fertilize the Americas, all the way to Tierra
del Fuego. The Erdogan wanabees even discovered countless Native
American words which were similar to Turkish. Turkish consuls showed
up at Native community functions, the peace pipe was passed around;
Ankara made donations to Native tribes, granted scholarships to young
Natives, and invited some of their chiefs to Istanbul junkets.

Apparently proving that the American Natives were Turks didn't impress
anyone outside President Erdogan's authoritarian jurisdiction. The
diligent professor has now decided to prove that eons after Turks
settled in the Americas, Muslim navigators rediscovered them... and
the Western Hemisphere.

What's next, Prof. Imaginarium? Turks invented farming, monotheism,
the alphabet, philosophy, all the arts, the printing press, the Law of
Gravity, the Heisenberg Theory, the Theory of Relativity and the laws
of aerodynamics, computers, nuclear energy, toothpaste, the under-arm
deodorant, french fries, Hula Hoop...? And Turkish astronauts landed
on the sun in 10,000 B.C.? Is it that latent sunstroke which has made
Prof. Erdogan such a versatile babbler of nonsense?

Erdogan's Comments About Muslims Discovering America Says A Lot About His State Of Mind

Recep Tayyip Erdoğans declaration that Muslims discovered America, speculation he read in a pamphlet which lacked supporting evidence, tells a lot about the Turkish presidents mind.After all, anyone who has traveled along the book stores of Beirut, or among the book sellers stalls in Cairo, will find dozens of similar pamphlets claiming that Islam was actually responsible for everything from the discovery of gravity to the moon landing. And lets not forget that Shakespeare was really Sheikh Zubayr bin William, a Muslim Arab living in Britain.Erdoğan, for his part, doubled down on his claim, demanding that his theory now be taught as reality in Turkeys schools.While Western officials might shrug and chuckle at Erdoğans declaration, its important to realize its no outlier for the Turkish president. A Turkish interlocutor (evidently paraphrasing this column by Yılmaz Özdil) noted how historians in Turkey have long chafed at Erdoğans theories:In Antalya, Erdoğan explained how the word Olympics takes its name from a mountain near Antalya, Mt. Olympus. The mountain is in northern Greece, and nowhere near Antalya.Its not just geography that confuses Mr. Erdoğan. When discussing the Battle of Manzikert in 1070 CE, a battle in which the Muslim Seljuqs defeated the larger Byzantine army and captured the Byzantine emperor, Erdoğan declared, Seljuq soldiers fought with their swords against the iron balls of the Byzantine artillery, raining on their heads. Artillery and gunpowder didnt come to the region for another three centuries. Oops.Then, again, this wasnt the only time he was publicly confused about the Seljuqs. In one speech, he described Ankara as the capital of the Seljuqs. In reality, though, Konya was the Seljuq capital. Ankara, at the time, was little more than a small town or large village.Fast forward about 500 years, to the reign of the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. Back in 2011, Erdoğan went on a rant about a popular Turkish serial depicting his life and times, complaining that it concentrated too much on his lavish life in the harem.Erdoğan explained that Suleiman had in reality spent 30 of his 46 years on the throne on horseback, running from battle to battle. During Suleimans reign, however, the Ottomans were at war for just ten years, and so were at peace for 36.He has repeatedly become exacerbated by the constraints of facts. When some historians began using old documents and records, and historical artifacts to research old Istanbul churches, Erdoğan grew annoyed that anyone would record or discuss Istanbuls pre-Islamic past. He chided, They dont know Istanbuls history. They go around with magnifying glass in their hand like [the Byzantine Emperor] Romanus Diogenes.Romanus Diogenes.Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara on February 18, 2014.He apparently confused Romanus IV with Diogenes of Sinope, a Greek philosopher who lived more than a millennium before, and who went around with a lantern, not a magnifying glass. Philosophers, however, have not been his thing. After all, he once said, If the Germans have Goethe and if the Spaniards have Socrates.Now, its perfectly true that other world leaders can occasionally get history wrong. George H.W. Bush once mistakenly commemorated the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day on September 7 rather than December 7. When mistakes happen, however, leaders acknowledge them. President Bush corrected himself; he didnt order textbooks re-written to make his error the new norm.Erdoğan may sound foolish, but the importance of his errors extends far beyond himself. Rather, they reflect the future of Turkey. Erdoğan is a product of an İmam Hatip education, the Turkish equivalent of a madrasa.Prior to Erdoğans rise, İmam Hatip graduates would primarily become mullahs or perhaps work in family businesses. Their lack of grounding in liberal arts and science disqualified them from most university programs and the government service which might follow. But Erdoğan has bolstered and promoted the İmam Hatips, so that their graduates now dominate Turkeys bureaucracy.Erdoğan may be no historian, but he has become the rule rather than the exception for the Turkish government he leads. He has ensured that there are thousands if not tens of thousands of protégés marching in lockstep behind him, all of whom treat fact with disdain and embrace mindless revisionism. Welcome to the future of Turkey.

Some of us must be graduates of his classes of history, those who insist the Mamikoneans are Chinese and the Bgratunis are yahoodi.

TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN SAYS WOMEN'S EQUALITY WITH MEN "AGAINST NATURE"

15:58 â~@¢ 24.11.14

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears set to anger women
and rights groups in the country once again after voicing his strong
objection to the equality of women and men, instead suggesting what
he called "equivalency," the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

"When we are able to look at human beings from the point of view of
justice, then the elimination of discrimination between women and men
would be possible in a much more fair, humanly and conscientiously
way. What do women need?" Erdogan said Nov. 24, delivering a speech
at an international gathering in Istanbul aimed at discussing women's
rights and freedoms.

"Sometimes, here they say 'men and women equality.' 'Equality among
women' and 'equality among men' is the way of putting it correctly.

However, what is particularly essential is women's equality before
justice," Erdogan said at the Women and Justice Summit hosted by the
Women and Democracy Association (KADEM).

"Equality is turning the victim into an oppressor by force or vice
versa. What women need is to be able to be equivalent, rather than
equal," the president said.

He also reiterated an argument he voiced in the past, announcing:
"You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against
nature because their nature is different."

"For example, in work life, you cannot impose the same conditions
on a pregnant woman as a man," Erdogan said, using an example to
illustrate his argument.

Erdogan has consistently exhorted women to have at least three
children, while also terming abortion "murder" and railing against
Caesarian sections.

Erdogan also told the Istanbul meeting that justice was the solution
to most of the world's issues - including racism, anti-Semitism, and
"women's problems".

The Turkish leader often causes controversy with his statements.

Earlier this month, he claimed that Muslims had discovered the Americas
more than 300 years before Christopher Columbus, and later insisted
that his rewriting of history should be taught in schools.

Throughout his time in power there have been more signs of Turkey
turning more extremist. In 2013, the Turkish Parliament tightened
restrictions on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages.

A year earlier, a Turkish court formally charged internationally known
pianist and composer Fazil Say with insulting Islamic religious values,
in comments he made on Twitter.

Previously, Turkey's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for
his comments about the mass killings of Armenians, under a law that
made it a crime to insult the Turkish identity. The government eased
that law in an amendment in 2008.

In another incident in 2007, ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
who received death threats because of his comments about the killings
of Armenians by Turks in 1915, was shot dead outside his office in
Istanbul. Arutz Sheva, All Rights Reserved.

Vice President of the United States Joe Biden had visited Turkey by the end of the previous week. It is known that the results of the visit are not satisfying for the American side: Ankara had refused to satisfy the expectations of Washington regarding the “Islamic state”. However, regardless the results of the visit, the readers, the Armenian readers in particular, have paid their attention on a very curious fact, while discussing the photos of Erdogan – Biden joint press conference disseminated by the France Press agency.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had received the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in the Istanbul based Beylerbeyi Palace. This is the summer residence of the Ottoman sultans and is located on the Asian shore of Bosporus. Beylerbeyi Palace was commissioned by Sultan Abdülaziz and built between 1861 and 1865 by Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan.
On one of the walls of the hall, where the Turkish President and the US Vice President held the press conference, a canvas by Armenian sea painter Hovhannes Ayvazovski was hanging. It is Sarkis Balyan whom Ayvazovski owes for his meeting with the High Porte.
Ottoman Imperial architect Balyan has performed as a mediator for the Turkish Sultan Abdul Mecid I to receive Ayvazovski. Abdul Mecid I, who had already one of the canvases of the famous Armenian painter, awarded him with a medal. The following sultan Abdülaziz was a more businesslike person. It was him who ordered to construct the Beylerbeyi Palace (meaning "Lord of Lords"). Sarkis Balyan presents to the last sultan, Abdülaziz, another painting by Ayvazovski. The seascape attracts the sultan so much that the latter orders him to paint 30 other canvases for him.
The Sultan amply rewards the Armenian painter for his work. Later on the success of Ayvazovski’s paintings makes Abdul Hamid II to express his gratitude to Ayvazovski by awarding him with a silver medal. Abdul Hamid awards Hovhannes Ayvazovski with another state medal before the massacre of Armenians.

The massacre organized and implemented by Abdul Hamid disappoints Hovhannes Ayvazovski deeply, who throws all the gifts received by the Turkish sultan into the sea. At the same time he says to the Consul of Turkey in Theodosia, “Tell your sanguinary master that I have thrown away all the medals received from him, and if he wants he can throw all my canvas into the sea.”
The Genocidal Turkey, naturally, has not thrown away the canvas of the prominent painter. Moreover, till now Ayvazovski’s works decorate the walls of such palaces like Beylerbeyi or Dolmabahçe. The latter, by the way, is constructed by Garabet Balyan, the father of Sarkis Balyan.

The photo made by the photographer of the “Associated Press” in Beylerbeyi Palace unveils one of the paintings by Ayvazovski, just behind the two officials holding the press conference. The western bloggers had surely noticed this fact and one of them has noted acutely, “However hard Turkey tries, it cannot hide away itself from Armenians…”

Muslim scientists working around 1,200 years ago were the first to
determine that the Earth is a sphere, Turkey's science, industry and
technology minister, becoming the latest Turkish official to inform
the world about apparent scientific firsts on the part of Islamic
world.

Speaking at a reception for business leader in the Central Anatolian
province of Konya late Nov. 28, Minister Fikri IÅ?Ä±k stressed the
contributions of the Islamic world to science throughout history.
"Some 700-800 years before Galileo, 71 Muslim scientists led by
al-Khwarizmi convened by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun and
revealed that the Earth is a sphere," he said. IÅ?Ä±k added that a copy
of the original document is currently in the Museum of Islamic Science
and Technology in Istanbul.

The museum was founded by Fuat Sezgin, a Turkish professor emeritus on
Arabic-Islamic science who was recently referred by Turkish President
Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, too. During a speech on Nov. 18, ErdoÄ?an quoted
Sezgin's theories for his controversial claim that the American
continent was "discovered by Muslim sailors" some 300 years before
Christopher Columbus.

The concept of a spherical Earth remained a matter of philosophical
speculation until the 3rd century BC, when Hellenistic astronomy
established the spherical shape of the earth as a physical given.

Galileo Galilei, on the other hand, was put to trial and convicted by
the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1616 and 1633 for his support of
heliocentrism, a theory which is not directly related to the notion
that the Earth is a sphere. Heliocentrism, the theory that the Earth
was a planet that revolved around the Sun, contradicted geocentrism,
the Aristotelian view that the earth was the center of the universe,
which agreed with a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Around 830 AD, Caliph Al-Ma'mun commissioned a group of Muslim
astronomers and geographers to measure the distance from Tadmur
(Palmyra) to Raqqah in modern Syria. They calculated the Earth's
circumference, reaching to numbers very close to the currently modern
values.

Today, the war-torn Raqqah is known as the stronghold of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

furkey is fast becoming an Islamic state.The US and its stooges have been shunning, harassing and boycotting the so called Islamic Republic of Iran. Let us see how they will treat their sweetheart, , the impending islamic dictatorship of ottoman furkeystan. To give them more power to cleanse the entire Middle East of non-muslim, i.e Christian population?I think that er-DOG-an is itching for another military coup.**----I will not air the entire gobble gobble article, see the rest at the site below.Rise of Turkish Islamic schooling upsets secular parents

Turkey has seen a sharp rise in religious schooling under reforms that President Tayyip Erdogan casts as a defense against moral decay, but which opponents see as an unwanted drive to shape a more Islamic nation.Almost a million students are enrolled in "imam hatip" schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told the opening of one of the schools in Ankara last month.

"According to interpreters of sharia, any land that was once settled by
Muslims must be reclaimed and returned to Muslim sovereignty, soon and
by force. If Erdogan can persuade enough Muslims that they discovered
and settled America, then any kind of Islam-inspired violence or
terror carried out in North or South America is simply a form of
grass roots activism designed to reclaim lost territory for Islam".

Last month, the Turkish government hosted a group of Latin American
Muslim leaders at a summit in Istanbul. On the closing day of the
summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a televised speech,
where he told the assembled delegates that, "The introduction of
Islam into the American continent dates back to the 12th century."

According to Erdogan, "314 years before Columbus, in 1178, Muslim
sailors reached the American continent. Indeed, in Columbus' diaries
there is a reference to a mosque on a hill near the sea shore. We
can have a talk with my Cuban brother here.... A mosque would suit
well on that hill today, if they allow it."

Any serious historian of the Americas, including representatives of
North American indigenous groups, cannot endorse Erdogan's speech.

Commenting on similar ahistorical claims made by the Arab World Studies
Notebook -- a project that tries to inject like-minded fabrications
into the American school curriculum -- Peter de Gangi, the director
of Canada's Algonquin Nation Secretariat, dismissed these kinds of
claims out-of-hand.

Let us take a brief look at the document upon which Erdogan based
his speech. It was written by Youssef Mroueh in 1996. It starts off
innocuously with the title, "Precolumbian Muslims in the Americas."

However, on the next line, the immediate bias of the piece is
revealed, for the article was written for "the Preparatory Committee
for International Festivals to celebrate the millennium of the Muslims
arrival to the Americas (996-1996)."

Upon reading the article, there seems to be some evidence that Muslim
sailors may have sailed west from Spain and North Africa into what
they then called the "ocean of darkness and fog" and brought back
interesting things. We know from more reliable historical sources that
they visited the Canary Islands and they may even have reached the
Caribbean. This is within the range of anthropological possibility,
but then the claims of the article become totally unsupportable.

Here is just one example from Mroueh's article:

"Dr. Barry Fell (Harvard University) introduced in his book
'Saga-America' 1980 solid scientific evidence supporting the arrival,
centuries before Columbus, of Muslims from North and West Africa....

Engraved on rocks in the arid western U.S., he found texts, diagrams
and charts representing the last surviving fragments of what was once
a system of schools ... the language of instruction was North African
Arabic written with old Kufic Arabic scripts ... the descendants of the
Muslim visitors of North America are members of the present Iroquois,
Algonquin, Anasazi, Hohokam and Olmec native people."

Mroueh clearly has not studied New World archaeology. Had he done so,
he may have noticed that archaeologists believe that the Olmec ceased
to exist as a people by 400 B.C., so they could not have met these
Muslim explorers or intermarried with them. Indigenous peoples of
Central America, such as the Aztecs and the Maya, had to wait more
than a thousand years to confront the visiting, conquering Spaniards
who came in the wake of Christopher Columbus and never left.

If Erdogan's speech has no basis in fact or history, and Mroueh's
understanding of American archaeology makes new-age pseudo historians
look empirical by comparison, we must ask ourselves why he gave
it and to what end? Before doing so, we must also ask ourselves if
there is a precedent for this kind of pseudo history in the once,
largely secular Turkish educational system, within which Erdogan and
his colleagues were raised, before he became the latest advocate of
state-sponsored fundamentalist Islam.

When Turkey entered the First World War with the Germans against
the allied powers, it was a barely modernizing agricultural empire
ruled by a Sultan in Istanbul who, as Caliph of Islam, was also the
religious leader of the world's Sunni Muslims.

According to Islamic theology, the basis of the Ottoman Empire was
its sharia-based legal code, in which Muslims came first, while Jews
and Christians were treated as second-class citizens under the law.

Non-Turkish Muslim ethnic groups, such as the Kurds, were equal, but
only as Muslims, not as representatives of a distinct ethnic group
or nation. The many Turkish-speaking Shia Alevi, were not accepted as
"true Muslims" by the Ottoman bureaucracy.

When Turkey lost the war, the allies began to carve up Asia Minor. A
group of soldiers and ideologues under the charismatic leadership
of former Ottoman military officer Mustafa Kemal (who would later
be known as Ataturk) fought a war against the allies and eventually
reclaimed authority over Asia Minor. In the early 1920s, he and his
supporters established the Republic of Turkey.

Ataturk is often described by historians as an authoritarian, secular
modernizer who in essence became dictator of Turkey until his death
in 1939. Soon after taking power, he orchestrated the end of the
caliphate, the exile of the Sultan, changed the Turkish alphabet to
a Latin script, expunged the Persian and Arabic vocabulary from the
Turkish language, made the veil illegal, forced men to give up the
turban and wear hats, and encouraged the study of engineering and
science in the newly founded Turkish universities. One of the areas
of study, which was disproportionately important to the new regime,
was anthropology.

Nazan Maksudyan is a historian of ideas based at Sabanci University
in Istanbul. She has carried out groundbreaking historical research
on the rise of anthropology in Turkey during the 1920s and '30s,
its pseudo-scientific basis and how it not only supported, but was
most probably directed by, the ruling political and bureaucratic
elite of the early Turkish republic. At one point, one of these
prominent anthropologists became an influential member of the national
parliament.

>From 1925 until the late '30s, the Turkish Review of Anthropology
became the academic journal of the Turkish Institute of Anthropology.

In one of Maksudyan's articles in the contemporary academic journal
Cultural Dynamics, she analyses one of the first studies published
in the journal, called the "Comparative Analysis of the Turkish Race
and Other Races Living in Istanbul."

She begins by pointing out that many of the academics linked to the
institute and the journal came from the medical profession and that
the institute itself was linked to the Faculty of Medicine at the
University in Istanbul. She points out that in the '20s, Turkey did
not have any trained anthropologists. But later, a small number of
Turks were sent by the state to study anthropology in Europe. These
included women such as Seniha Tunakan, who in 1935 was sent to Germany
to study under scholars such as Dr. Eugen Fischer at the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics. In
1933, Adolph Hitler made sure that Fisher was appointed rector of
the University of Berlin.

We now know that during the '30s, German anthropology was dominated
by social Darwinism, a pseudo scientific theory that proclaimed that
the reason European nations dominated the world, was because of their
supposed (but unproven) biological superiority. At the same time,
German scientists and anthropologists believed that the Nordic races,
with the Germans at the top, were the dominant culture in the world.

The reason that eugenics was attached to anthropology was because of
the growing Nazi belief that other races were akin to biological germs
that needed to be cleansed from the body politic. These included Jews,
Gypsies and other inferior "Asiatics." Thus, German anthropology and
anthropologists were one of the major ideological building blocs of
the Holocaust.

We can only imagine what it must have been like for an aspiring medical
student and student of anthropology from the newly independent,
newly "secularized" Turkish republic coming to Germany during the
'30s and being accosted by these outlandish racial theories, that
suggested that the Turks might not be the racial equals of their
German academic hosts.

For centuries, Turkish Muslims had lived under a theological worldview,
which put Turkish-speaking Sunni Muslims at the top of creation. Adding
to this implied German insult of a visiting Turkish student would be
the fact that just a few years earlier, the Germans were the allies
and equals of the Turks and had encouraged them to turn the First
World War into a Jihad against England and France.

Clearly, the challenge of these visiting students was to create a
Turkish anthropology that would portray the Turks as a master race.

And that is exactly what the Turkish Institute of Anthropology did.

They created their own version of social Darwinism with the Turks on
top of the ladder of human creation.

Maksudyan's article shows that on a supposed survey of Turkish,
Greek, Armenian and Jewish residents of Istanbul, the researchers
sufficiently cooked the data to suggest that the Turks were the
superior race. Oddly, the researchers suggested that the Jews were
"mongrels," a mixed race, and they questioned whether the Greeks
of Istanbul were even related to the Greeks of what had become the
independent state of modern Greece.

Maksudyan clearly shows that neither the sample, the categories or the
correlations were clearly laid out. This foundational study had only
one goal in mind: To demonstrate that Turks were the dominant race
in Asia Minor, "the masters of the country," and that all minorities
should be subservient to them on the basis of this supposed biological
superiority.

Not to be outdone by anthropologists, Turkish historians during the
early republic were at work rewriting history to suggest that the
Turks were at the origins of the rise of civilization in the ancient,
pre-Islamic Middle East. So both Turkish anthropology and Turkish
history during the rise of the republic were based on pseudo science
and a translated form of German-inspired racial theory, applied to
the Turkish situation.

Despite the rise of Turkish pseudo science and history, during the
20th century, a number of distinguished Turkey-based institutions
(such as Roberts College) provided a small minority of Turks with a
haven for rational thought, science and the study of Western and world
civilizations. With the growth of secondary and university education
in Turkey, there have emerged thinkers who have not been poisoned by
either the pseudo science of the past or the renewed Islamism of the
present Erdogan government.

So why does Erdogan now claim that Muslims discovered America? The
answer lies in his return to the Sunni theology supported by the former
Ottoman Sultans. According to interpreters of sharia, any land that
was once settled by Muslims must be reclaimed and returned to Muslim
sovereignty, soon and by force.

If Erdogan can persuade enough Muslims that they discovered and
settled America, then any kind of Islam-inspired violence or terror
carried out in North or South America is simply a form of grass roots
activism designed to reclaim lost territory for Islam. We have already
seen what this means here in Canada, as Islamic terror is no longer
a stranger to our country. Erdogan is simply its most absurd and most
highly placed advocate.

Perhaps the government of Canada needs to give Erdogan's speech a
bit more thought, as Turkey is still a member of NATO.

The president of Turkey has re-written history by claiming Muslim
explorers, not Christopher Columbus, discovered America.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chief of America's NATO ally, said November 15
that Islamic sailors found the New World in 1178. He said, "Muslims
discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus." Turkey is the
only Islamic nation in the NATO.

His theory -- which is supported only by Islamic historians -- came
to light in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslims
leaders from Latin America.

Erdogan brought up the supposed connection in a bid to establish a
long history for links between Turkey and Latin America.

The summit's main theme was "Building Our Traditions and Our Future."

Apparently, Turkey is aiming its Islamic expansionism at Latin America,
which does not have a significant number of Muslims. In fact, with
Turkey's aid, Muslims intend an international Islamic confederation.

In a previous conference dubbed "Antichrist Confederacy," Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, Chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars
(IUMS), announced in Turkey:

"The Caliphate in today's age must be established through a number
of several states that are governed by Shariah and supported by both,
the rulers and the people in the form of a federation or confederation
and not as it was in the past."

His announcement was published throughout the Muslim world, including
CNN Arabic version. IUMS represents the largest body of Muslim
scholars worldwide.

Before its summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America, Turkey
organized the Eurasia Islamic Council meeting, focusing on Islamic
expansion in Eurasia.

Yet, Turkish expansionism has never been under the radar of the U.S.

and one of the main architects of the U.S. alliance with Islamic
terrorist groups, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Ben Barrack has said,

"There is clearly a fixation on the part of Brzezinski that controlling
Eurasia is key to U.S. dominance. However, what he's clearly been
missing is that Turkey is the country that has been seeking Eurasian
dominance while NATO countries continue to view it as an ally."

Brzezinski's focus of concern is only Russia. To neutralize Russia,
for decades he helped Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. And today America
is a backer of the two main sources for the Islamic terror in the
world: Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

So while the U.S. and its NATO are focusing on Russia as an Eurasian
threat, their only Islamic ally is expanding its Islamic dominance
in Eurasia.

Not only in Eurasia, but internationally. Turkey has also organized
the Summit of Muslim African Leaders, the Meeting of the European
Muslims, Meeting of the Balkan Religious Affairs Presidents and the
World Islamic Scholars Peace, Moderation and Common Sense. Turkey is
working very hard for an Islamic confederation.

The only Islamic ally of the U.S. in the NATO is, according to Robert
E. Kaplan, reconstructing the Ottoman Empire, with the U.S. military
interventions' aid. Kaplan said,

"Each of these United States military interventions occurred in an
area that had been part of the Ottoman Empire, and where a secular
regime was replaced by an Islamist one."

And during the Ottoman Empire, the land of Israel was under Islamic
control for three centuries. Christians also had their lot of suffering
under this Islamic empire.

One hundred year ago, Turkey committed one of the worst Islamic
genocides against Christians. It was the Armenian Genocide, which
has never been recognized by supposedly large Christian nations,
including the U.S., Germany and Brazil, which are apparently fearful
of infuriating their ally, whose Islamic expansion in the past brought
blood-shedding.

Even today, Turkey is involved in blood-shedding. According to WND,
"Turkey has supported jihadist groups whose fighters later morphed
into ISIS fighters," who have been slaughtering Christians in Syria
and Iraq.

WND also reported, "Turkey is now perhaps the biggest al-Qaida base
in the world."

What will Turkey's expansionist plans, especially for Latin America,
bring for the next years?

I do not know. But in its summit for Latin America, Turkey promised
that it is "Building Our Traditions and Our Future."

If you include Bible prophecies, the Turkish picture gets much darker.

According to WND, theologians, both Christian and Jewish, have long
interpreted the Antichristian armies of Gog of Magog as coming from
the land of Turkey. Some of these theologians are: Hippolytus of Rome
(170-235), Moses Ben Maimonides (aka Rambam) (1135-1204), Nicholas of
Lyra (1270-1349), Martin Luther (1483-1546), John Wesley (1703-1755)
and Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).

Do their interpretations about Turkey match the record and behavior
of this Islamic nation? If so, will Turkey want to have its Ottoman
Empire again? And will it want to invade Israel to reestablish its
ownership over the land of the Jews?

The letters of the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation were
addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor -- today Turkey. Other
important Christian church that disappeared under Islamic Turkey
is Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul (former Constantinople). Hagia Sophia
was the oldest and largest Christian cathedral (from 537 to 1453)
in the world. From 1453 to 1931, Islamic Turkey used it as a mosque.

Yet, if you thought that these Christian tragedies and Turkish Islamic
expansionism are old stories, think again.

After 9/11, mosques began popping up across America, and Turkey,
with Saudi Arabia, is one of the Islamic nations benefiting from the
Islamic terrorist attack.

The government of Turkey is building a $100 million mega mosque, the
Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Lanham, Maryland.

Would Turkey, or even Saudi Arabia, allow the U.S. government to
build a $100 million mega Christian church in their lands?

Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister traveled to the U.S. to attend the
groundbreaking ceremony for the mosque in 2013. Would Turkey allow
a U.S. president to inaugurate a mega church in its nation?

Another important question is: Did Muslims discover America? There
is no evidence of it today. But if America keeps its Islamic ally
free to advance, it might be impossible to disprove Turkey's claims
in the future that Muslims conquered America.

Today, Turkey helps Islamic terrorist groups slaughtering Christians in
the Middle East, wants to conquer America, Eurasia and Latin America
and it is advancing unpunished, because it is a NATO and U.S.

ally.

Apparently, Turkey will play a major Islamic role in the dark future
threatening Christians, Jews, Israel, Latin America and the world.

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has
described birth control as a form of "treason," saying it threatened
the country's bloodline.

As reports "Armenpress" citing Reuters, Erdogan urged a newly married
couple at their wedding late on Sunday to have at least three children
to help boost Turkish population figures, a common refrain from the
president, who worries a declining birth rate may undermine economic
growth.

"For years they committed a treason of birth control in this country,
seeking to dry up our bloodline. Lineage is very important both
economically and spiritually," he told the couple after serving as
their witness at the wedding. A video of the speech was posted on
the mainstream Radikal news website.

Last month, Erdogan, a devout Muslim, said it was unnatural to
consider women and men equal and said feminists did not understand
the importance of motherhood. In 2012, he sought to effectively outlaw
abortion, but later dropped the plan amid a public outcry.

Erdogan regularly faces criticism for an authoritarian style of rule
after 11 years in power.

Turkey's population growth has been slowing in recent years and
the live-birth rate hovered at 2.07 percent last year, according to
official statistics.

The Institute of World Politics hosted a panel of experts to debate
Turkey's evolving geopolitical role, both with regards to the
country's aggressive action in the Mediterranean and Ankara's posture
towards Kurdish minorities, as well as the Erdogan government's
failure to normalize relations with Armenia without preconditions. In
essence going from a stated policy of "zero problems with neighbors"
to "zero ties with neighbors."

Haykaram Nahapetyan (Journalist, researcher, and correspondent of the
Public TV Company of Armenia to the U.S.), Zendy Zemenides (Executive
Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council) and Mehmet
Yuksel (Representative of the People's Democratic Party to the U.S.)
all contended that the United States must express a higher level of
disapproval towards Turkey's regional activities.

Such activities from the Turkish government include unwarranted
military action against the island of Cyprus, an economic development
zone that exaggerates Turkey's allocated maritime boundaries, and a
hostile stance toward the Kurdish community. Moreover, the speakers
noted, the continued denial of the Armenian Genocide on the threshold
of its 100th anniversary in April 2015 shows that Ankara is not
willing to recognize this crime against humanity and provide adequate
restitution to the Armenian nation. These actions are all taking place
within a country that continues to enjoy membership in NATO, has
lobbied for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, and has
shown aspirations of joining the European Union.

In their closing statements, when asked to describe Turkey's future in
2015 with a single word, the panelists responded with "convoluted,"
"volatile," and "difficult."

The panel was hosted by Vilen Khlgatyan, an alumnus of IWP and Vice
Chairman of the Political Developments Research Center (PDRC), a think
tank based in Yerevan, Armenia.

Socialist Laz poet from Turkey, Serkan Engin who recognizes Armenian
Genocide share his thoughts with Times.am. He is famous in Turkey as
an antagonist and brave writer who is not afraid of writing about
Genocide issues. His political articles have been published in many
countries like USA, Greece, Sweden, India, Armenia, France, Indonesia,
etc.

- Mr. Ergin you are one of the rare intellectuals in Turkey who
recognizes Armenian Genocide. What is the reason of your attitude?

I'm talking about these genocides, because this is an obligation from
my conscience. This is an ethical duty for me as an honest and
honorable intellectual. This is my debt and obligation to humanity. I
want to talk about all these genocides perpetrated my Turk ancestors,
because in Turkey you must declare the truth loudly, against the lies
of the so-called official history.

I'm the child who shouts "The Emperor is naked". I'm devoting myself
to the truth at the cost of my life and freedom, because I want to
create and increase awareness about these atrocities, so that similar
crimes against humanity won't be perpetrated again.

-Mr Engin, please tell us the reflections of your struggle in Turkey
on Armenia Genocide

In Turkey I can be easily killed any time. I have big support from
many Armenians all over the world. Some Armenians blame me to try to
get Noble as some fascists blame me.

Many Armenian or no Armenian newspapers published my articles and
interviews on Armenian Genocide. But Agos preferred to ignore, because
they are in fear. Yes, this is normal maybe I have respect, but even I
am not an Armenian , a Laz-Turk I have struggle in death risk. So do
they have right of being in fear?

Rober Koptas insulted me as saying "these articles don't have any news value"
Also he said "there hundred and thousand like you ,we must make news
about all of them?".
An Armenian newspaper in Argentina makes news about me, but not my
country's Armenian newspaper Agos. A well-known news website in Sweden
publishes my article on Armenian genocide, but not Agos A Greek
newspaper publishes my article on Armenian, Greek, Assyrian genocide,
but not Agos

Karin Karakasli had banned me at twitter because I wanted her to RT
the link of my first article at `Armenpress' named being a « Being
Turk is insufferable shame: Turkish poet» If they don't have struggle
as brave as me, why do I continue much? Why do I take the risk of
being killed? Am I stupid? Artin Barbetian blamed me to try to get
Nobel price...that is a big insult for me...also he added "these
interviews have no value" Struggle power and enthusiasm have been much
decreased because of this insulting behavior of Agos Newspaper and
some Armenians in Turkey. I have big support only from Armenians on
Diaspora and Armenia...

Some "famous" Armenians in Turkey prefer to ignore my "dangerous"
articles telling the truth on genocides...

I have no enough support in Turkey even by Armenian intellectuals and
this make me an easy target for racists. I can be easily killed
because there is no one behind me, Õ¥ven Armenian authors/journalists
in Turkey. I am lonesome at this struggle because I write very clear.
I said the awful truths bravely.

Of course this also shows the situation of freedom of express in
Turkey. Turkey is a hell for an antagonist author.

Will the Turkish president ErDOGan practice what he preaches? What a hypocrite! Why is he still silent about the killings of all minorities in Turkey, like Hrant Dink and others!

09:17 13/02/2015 » IN THE WORLD

Chapel Hill murders: Turkish leader challenges Obama

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence over the murder of three Muslim students in the US, the BBC reported.
He said politicians were responsible for events in their countries and had to clarify their stance over them.
More than 5,000 people attended the funeral of the students who were shot dead in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
With a suspect in custody, police are still investigating the motive, amid family claims it was a hate crime.
Initial indications are that the gunman, Craig Hicks, acted in a dispute over a parking space, according to the police.
A district prosecutor said on Wednesday there was no evidence that the victims - Deah Shaddy Barakat, wife Yusor Mohammad and her sister Razan - had been targeted because of their faith.
However, at Thursday's funeral, the local police chief said his force would investigate every lead, including the possibility of a hate crime.
The murders have resonated both within US and around the world, especially on social media. The hashtag ChapelHillShooting has been used hundreds of thousands of times.
Speaking on a visit to Mexico, Mr Erdogan criticised Mr Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and US Vice-President Joe Biden for not having made any statement about the murder of the "three Muslims."
"If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don't make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you," he said.
"As politicians, we are responsible for everything that happens in our countries and we have to show our positions."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his ambitious plan
to build a major Ottoman-style mosque in Cuba, saying it should be
similar to a nineteenth century one on the Bosphorus in Istanbul,
the presidency said Thursday.

Erdogan acknowledged after holding talks with Cuban President Raul
Castro in Havana that Cuban officials had appeared to have already
made an agreement with Saudi Arabia for the construction of a mosque
in Havana.

But Erdogan, who caused astonishment last year by claiming Muslims
discovered the Americas before Columbus, said Turkey was pressing
for an Ottoman-style mosque in another city in Cuba.

"We have told them that we could build a similar one to Ortakoy
Mosque in another city, if you have promised to others for Havana,"
Erdogan said in the communist island, the second stop of his Latin
America tour.

The Ortakoy Mosque, designed by the Balyan family of Armenian
architects, was built in 1853 during the rule of the Ottoman sultan
Abdulmecid I.

The neo-Baroque edifice is a familiar sight on the shore near the
Bosphorus Bridge.

Erdogan said Turkey was not in search of a partner to build the mosque
as "our architecture is different from that of Saudi Arabia."

"I have provided the Cuban officials with all the necessary
information.... so far they have not taken a negative approach to it,"
he was quoted as saying by the presidential website.

Erdogan, a pious Muslim who has been in power for more than a decade,
stirred controversy late last year by declaring that the Americas
were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries
before Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic.

Erdogan cited as evidence for his claim that "Columbus mentioned the
existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast" and offered to
build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer.

The president has repeatedly been ridiculed by critics for harking
back to Turkey's past to even before the Ottoman Empire was established
in the fourteenth century.